Save tigers to protect Sundarbans' ecosystem: Minister
The Bengal tigers living in the Sundarbans have to be saved to protect the ecosystem of the world's largest mangrove forest, said Environment and Forests Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud yesterday.
“The presence of tigers shows a healthy ecosystem in the Sundarbans. So, we've to protect our tigers,” Dr Hasan told the inaugural session of a roundtable at Ban Bhaban (forest department) in Agargaon of the capital.
Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) and the forest department jointly organised the two-day technical discussion titled 'Scientific monitoring of tigers in the Sundarbans of India and Bangladesh'.
Chaired by Chief Conservator of Forests M Yunus Ali, the roundtable was addressed, among others, by IUCN Country Representative Ishtiak Uddin Ahmad, WTB Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of UNB Enayetullah Khan, Professor of Zoology department at Dhaka University and WTB Chief Executive Dr Md Anwarul Islam.
Experts from the Wildlife Institute of India-Prof Yadvendradev Jhala and Prof Kamar Kurashi-made separate power-point presentations on the occasion.
The technical roundtable is aimed at developing a joint monitoring protocol for the Sundarbans of India and Bangladesh.
Technical tiger-monitoring experts from Bangladesh, India and around the world will present papers on various scientific techniques available and discusses their applicability on the unique Sundarbans' ecosystem.
They will put forward a set of recommendations for a joint monitoring protocol for tigers in the Sundarbans.
Speaking as chief guest, Dr Hasan said Bangladesh was world's most densely populated tiger habitat.
“On average, one tiger lives in every 20 square kilometres in Bangladesh, whereas it is 200-400 square kilometres in Russia,” he said.
Dr Hasan said the Sundarbans had a unique ecosystem and biodiversity despite the political boundary between Bangladesh and India.
To protect the largest mangrove forest, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, during her visit to India, signed two protocols-- the Conservation of Tigers and Conservation of Ecosystem of the Sundarbans--he said.
The minister suggested involving local people in programmes taken to protect the Sundarbans to ensure success.
Referring to the government's initiative to save the wildlife and forests, he said his ministry had taken a number of initiatives to protect the forests, including the Sundarbans, from the environmental peril and human intervention.
Dr Hasan appreciated the initiatives of scientific survey of tigers in the Sundarbans to assess how many tigers are there.
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